Creed frontman Scott Stapp hasn’t been shy about past
battles with depression, alcoholism and drug abuse, culminating in two
near-death experiences. In the world premiere of “Slow Suicide,” the first video
off his solo album Proof of Life, the singer revisits painful memories from
both childhood and adulthood first elucidated in his 2012 autobiography Sinner’s
Creed.

“[’Slow Suicide’] was the perfect way for me to start off
the story this albums tells, which was to come right out and face the music and
deal candidly and poignantly with negative things that I had been doing and
just face it,” Stapp tells Fuse. “I had to call it for what it was and what I was
doing to myself: slowly killing myself and not dealing with things in my life
appropriately. It set the tone for the rest of the album.”

Directed by Andrew Gant and shot in an old abandoned Los
Angeles hospital, “Slow Suicide” shows Stapp in various life stages of distress,
including physical abuse as a child and arrests and near-death experiences in
hospitals as an adult.

“It’s an autobiography exactly as it happened,” admits
Stapp. “There’s no embellishment; if anything, it’s toned down from reality. It
was a real cathartic experience. I got to see what alcohol and drugs did to me,
but I got to see it from a clear place shooting this video. I got to sit back
and say, ‘My god, my wife and my family were in the hospital and I looked like
that [in real life].’ The other scenarios were all me bringing closure to my
life.”

Asked if it would be tough to recount his darkest moments
night after night on tour, the singer noted the song’s positive aspects. “[The
song] is reminding me of a mentality that I need to carry on for the rest of my
life, which is, ‘I can’t let this life pass me by.’ For someone who’s battled
with depression, drug addiction and alcoholism, it’s always good to have that reminder
of where you’ve been so you don’t want to go there again, followed by that epiphany
of ‘This is how I want to live my life now.’ I was living my life headed
straight for the grave. I should’ve been in that grave. This is all part of my
journey to recovery.”